Ewen McKenzie recalls monumental moment in post-apartheid rugby

IT was an encounter years in the making, but when the Wallabies, All Blacks and Springboks finally reunited, it was in the most unlikely of circumstances.

Ewen McKenzie didn't fully appreciate the occasion at the time, but on reflection it was a monumental moment, certainly in the history of rugby, but also in world sport.

South Africa was readmitted to international rugby in 1992 following the abolition of apartheid and Australia and New Zealand were the first teams invited to tour the country that August.

McKenzie was part of the Wallabies team that traveled to South Africa and he remembers the unique day spent with sporting rivals and politicians in a Johannesburg mine.

"We were there with the All Blacks and the Springboks together and we did a joint photo in Johannesburg at Gold Reef City," he said.

"We had a BBQ underground with all the politicians of the day - FW de Klerk, (Mangosuthu) Buthelezi, the whole lot. The heavy hitters were all there and we had a 'braai' a kilometre underground.

"Three teams and all the politicians."

South Africa was a country in transition. Nelson Mandela was free, but he hadn't yet been elected president; the singing of the old anthem, 'Die Stem', was prohibited, but a new anthem was still in the works.

"It was a highly political tour with lots going on in the background," McKenzie remembers.

"But it was an enjoyable tour seeing South Africa in transition. Rugby was in transition too and we were all trying to work out who was who in the zoo. I felt there were so many things going on at so many levels beyond us.

"We were just playing rugby, but you could feel the edge."

The next year the Springboks embarked on their first post-isolation tour of Australia. It was their first since 1971.

Former Springbok flyhalf Joel Stransky remembers it as a tour of uncertainty. It was a young, unsettled team still trying to find its feet barely a year after emerging from isolation.

"That 1993 tour was our first opportunity to play for South Africa," Stransky said.

"It was our first touch of the traditional Springbok badge and emblem and all the history and tradition that comes with it. It was quite a learning curve for everyone.

"Francios Pienaar was captain and he had played a couple of tests, but it was a real inexperienced bunch of travelers."

After so many years of Apartheid and isolation, the Springboks were a divided team and the biggest challenge for them was learning how to play for each other.

"For all those years of isolation we had spent so much time beating the hell out of each other that when we came together there was still an element of sticking together with your provincial colleagues," Stransky said.

"The rivalry became so great and because we played each other four times a year, it became a hate relationship and some of those barriers were hard to overcome. And then linked to that you had all the best players in the country who captained their provincial teams. So you had four or five captains on that tour, all strong characters, all with their loyal supporters, and it was always going to take a while to break down those barriers."

McKenzie didn't notice those divisions at the time, but thinking back it makes sense to him.

"Now that I think about it the Currie Cup was everything in South African rugby for a long time, so I can imagine the rivalry," he said.

"You can see it on the walls of the stadiums as you go around - there's a lot of photography on the walls about that rivalry. Those games, those finals were remembered.

"I think every national team has the challenge of bringing together rivals, but in the end if you’ve got a united banner to play behind, and I think there was obviously some transition going on in the background with a new flag, new anthem, those are things to pull them together as a group.

"The 1995 World Cup was the obvious uniting moment where it all sort of came together in a complete way - three years completed the process."

Australia went on the win the series 2-1, but McKenzie remembers how tough it was. South Africa had developed their own style of play during their isolation and the Wallabies had to learn about it very quickly.

"They were really competitive straight away and had a lot of quality players," McKenzie said.

"Massive guys, legendary players who were still playing then, revered characters that were running around just waiting to get back and play in the world competition again. It was a terrific time from a rugby point of view where everyone got back together.

"They played a lot of games quickly to get exposure back on the international scene. Some of their players that were legends might have been a bit beyond it, the body types were different. They were massive guys. The Kiwi guys were playing the game at pace, so were we, so the body shapes changed. There was a new guard of

Springbok players that series and we saw some of them on that tour. So there was a bit of a composite team there as they tried to move into a different style of rugby."

Stransky was part of the new guard that would go on to lift the Rugby World Cup in South Africa two years later, which was memorably handed over by Mandela. By then, he was president of the fractured country and, as Stransky puts it, "the unofficial captain of all our sporting teams".

"Madiba for us has been our hero, undoubtedly the grandfather of our wonderful, multicultural country. His influence, his magic, undoubtedly rubs off on all the players."

South Africa opened their Rugby Championship campaign this year by honouring Mandela, who remains in a critical condition in hospital.

And each time current Springbok captain Jean de Villiers runs onto the field, he hopes Madiba is watching with a smile.

"I think he got so much joy through the years with sport and what South Africa achieved and I think it's very fitting that we try give back in that way to him," de Villiers said.

"If he can watch the game and manage to crack a smile and just feel good in his heart when watching, then I think we've given back a little.

"He took something that's very South African and used that as a tool to unite the nation and it's worked."

When the Springboks arrive in Australia on Sunday it will mark 20 years since that first, post-isolation tour in 1993.

Twenty years, too, since McKenzie first locked horns with the Springboks.

"I feel a bit older now," he said.

"I got to play against South Africa for the first time in an official sense and now I get to coach against them. Old is new in some respects.

"I look forward to the game. Each country offers a different technical challenge and obviously South African rugby has its own uniqueness, so I’m really looking forward to the game - always have."